REGION: Jeffries leads Buster in race too close to call

Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster's bid for a sixth term is in jeopardy, but his runoff with challenger Kevin Jeffries was too close to call Wednesday.

Jeffries, a termed-out Assemblyman from the Lake Elsinore area, held a roughly 1,000-vote and one-percentage-point lead after the county finished counting ballots cast on Election Day.

However, the registrar of voters said 183,000 ballots were left to be counted. It was not known how many were in the 1st District that Buster represents and that Jeffries wants to take over.

Jeffries, 51, stopped short of declaring victory.

"We're not celebrating yet," he said.

Jeffries said he would wait to see the numbers after a scheduled voting update at 6 p.m. Thursday.

"Today and tomorrow we are taking down campaign signs," Jeffries said. "Tomorrow night will be the celebration."

Buster, 67, said he wasn't ready to concede the election, but talked as if his 20-year service on the Board of Supervisors was coming to an end.

"Unless there is some real change (in Thursday's update) ... I would expect this to hold," Buster said. "We just came up a little short. We gave it our all."

Buster said he had begun to look ahead, compiling a list of things to do around his Riverside home and citrus grove.

"It's more than two pages long," he said.

As for Jeffries, he figured the closely watched county election would be close.

"That's the last thing a candidate wants to see," he said. "Look, it's very difficult to unseat a 20-year incumbent, whether it's a congressman or a supervisor. It's just really tough."

Because of that, Jeffries said he campaigned hard to the end. He suggested that was reflected in election night trends, which showed Buster leading after the early absentee vote was counted, but trailing after polling-place ballots were added.

"You could just see that the late voters, the Election Day voters, broke in our direction strong," he said. "I attribute that to our really aggressive door-to-door campaign. We never let up in the last couple of weeks. We just kept at it and turned up the heat."

Jeffries lives in the unincorporated community of Lakeland Village and owns a small business. He is well-known in Southwest County.

Still, analysts said Buster's experience and better name recognition in Riverside ---- where half the district's voters are ---- made winning the contest difficult for Jeffries.

Buster, however, has long been targeted for ouster by public employee unions that represent county employees. And unions were particularly angry with him over the leading role he played in 2011 in delivering significant reform of retirement benefits, aimed at curbing costs in the face of falling revenue.

"I took the brunt of the criticism for pension reform in the county," he said.